Saving Isaac
by Rawr Power
Summary: What would happen if the Mt. Aleph Boulder took Isaac, not Felix? This is it. Not a very good title, but the best I can do. Rated T for language safety. Valeshipping.
1. Prologue

Alright guys this fanfic is all about what would happen if Isaac was taken by Saturous and Menardi after the boulder incident rather than Felix

Alright guys this fanfic is all about what would happen if Isaac was taken by Saturous and Menardi after the boulder incident rather than Felix. It'll be really dark, as I don't mind being sadistic to my characters, and looong. If you don't like long fanfics, turn back now. Also, this is my first fanfic so don't be too hard on it. Also, you might be wondering why I'm doing a long one. This'uns been on the drawing board for a while and gone through 3 revisions so I hope you like it. Review please )

It was a winter's night in Vale, and Jenna couldn't sleep, except for perhaps Garet, she thought to herself, chuckling, who was in the next room. In fact, all of the village's young teenagers had crashed at her family's house after the Mercury festival that cold night on Mt. Aleph. No one minded. Vale had that small village mentality that they were all one big family. Shivering, Jenna pulled her legs against her chest and stared out into the rain from her window. That rain was why no one could sleep. The Mercury festival, held each year at the winter solstice, was meant to honor the element Mercury. However, if a storm had come, then it was a powerful omen of bad things to come. She had heard her parents whispering in scared voices in the next room. The last time rain had come after the solstice was 150 years before. News filtered slowly up through the continent but after it finally reached tiny Vale it had become apparent that most of northern Gondawan and lower Angara had been wiped out by what came to be known as the Great Flood. Fed up with staring out at the rain in the dark, Jenna lit her lantern with a small flare from her fingertips and plopped down on her bed. Even though the rain was keeping her awake, she was still dog tired after the partying at the festival.

"No," she thought, "Not the partying. Having to physically restrain Felix from that chocolate is much tougher than any partying there was to be had."

Letting out a huge sigh, she said out loud "Brothers!" Next door, from the room Isaac, Garet, and Jenna's favorite chocoholic shared, there was a sound of pulling up sheets and sure enough, Felix burst in a few seconds later.

"Couldn't sleep either huh?" he asked.

"No, even though tying you to a chair does take a beating our of one's energy"

"Hey, shut up! At least I don't have a little problem with drinking beer!" Felix managed to say while trying to keep a straight face

Jenna picked up her pillow and started chasing Felix around the small room, shrieking "You put that alcohol in my drink and you know it. Someday I am gonna get you for letting me wake up on Garet's sofa in the morning covered in puke!"

The last shriek of "puke!" defied the laws of physics and actually woke Garet. The burly Mars adept lumbered out of the room blinking sleepily

"Wha' time is eht?" Garet mumbled sleepily.

Dropping the pillow he had picked up in self defense, Felix managed to get out between bursts of laughter "Wow I'm impressed. You woke Garet but not Isaac? Garet may as well be dead when he sleeps but Isaac gets up for anything. Geez, when'd you learn that trick?"

"Hey, that's not fair! Anyone could get up if they hear the word pu--"

And suddenly a huge sound rose over the room, drowning out Jenna. The sound of a huge wave. Jenna never knew what happened next, but since her house was built over water, she knew that the sound couldn't be good. The sound continued toward the house from what they could hear and plunged into what seemed to be the boy's room. What happened next was a blur of froth, mud, broken house, and bubbles as the walls of Jenna's house imploded inwards and showered the formerly happy trio of adepts with said froth, mud, and broken house. Jenna opened her mouth to scream, but it filled with water and she knew no more.

When Jenna came too, she was lying on debris from her house on the riverbank, her soft red nightclothes caked in mud and what looked like blood. After coming to, she simply stared down at the wreckage until a dull ache broke her trance and she looked down at her side to see that he nightclothes and the skin underneath were cut by what must have been a broken spar of wood.

"Lucky its not worse," she thought to herself. "Could have wound up in the state my house is in. Good thing the boys aren't around, they might actuall—wait, where are the boys?" she remembered as her memories fell slowly back in place.

"SHIT!" she screamed as she manically started to tear through the wreckage she was lying on, looking for a flash of red, black, or blonde hair from one of the boys.

Suddenly, a call came from the top of the hill.

"Jennaaaaa! Jennnaaaaaaaa! Answer me Jenna!" Yelled Felix as his untidy mop of black hair appeared over the hill.

"Here Felix!" Jenna yelled, waving her arms and running for him, wreckage now forgotten.

"Get over here, you need to see what happened"  
"I'm coming, I'm coming."

Jenna reached the top of the hill only to find a horrible sight, for Isaac was evidently unconscious in the swollen river, the only thing keeping him from drowning being his trademark yellow scarf, now soaked in a small bit of blood and caught around a small spar of wood. As she watched, he evidently woke up, for his eyes fluttered open and he took a big gasp in shock which turned to gagging as he got a big mouth full of muddy water.

Dashing for the bridge which led to the other side, Felix yelled after her "Careful! The elder's are saying that the storm dislodged the Mt. Aleph Boulder. They're holding it back right now!"

"Isaac, are you alright?" she huffed, reaching the spot closest to the blonde boy.

"What do you think Jenna?" He said, poking fun at her even though his normally warm blue eyes were filled with terror.

"We're going to get you out Isaac!" she screamed helplessly as a big rumbling noise filled the air to the north.

"Jenna, get back. That boulder is going to come straight down this river." He said calmly and simply. "I won't let you die with me."

"Stop it Isaac, your not going to die! Your like my brother, I can't just leave you here!"

"Jenna, you have to get out. What you say can't change that. I guess this is the bad thing the storm was foretelling. Ah well" he sighed as he started to untie his scarf, the same one that held him to the pole he depended on.

"Isaac! What are you doing!?"

"Saving you Jenna. I can't be saved. But you can. Your going to stay here until its absolutely certain I'm dead or that boulder comes down and kills both of us. I'll choose the first option." And with that, he released the scarf and was taken by the current.

"FELIX, KYLE, HELP ME!!" Jenna screamed as she stumbled in horror back from the bank."

Kyle, looking up from where he was tending toward Garet, started to sprint toward Jenna but never got the chance. As he reached the middle of the bridge, the boulder took that moment to strike. In what looked like slow motion, the bridge blew apart, sending Kyle's seemingly tiny, clearly dead body up and away into the night. But Jenna never saw where the body landed. She was too busy staring in horror and awe downstream as the river swept Kyle and his son down into the depths, and the rain came pouring down.

Isaac came to in a strange bed, staring at a strange ceiling. His first thought: "The floor is moving." The second: "Why is it so cold?" The third: "OH SH--! Where is everybody?" Exploding out of the cramped bed he dashed over to the window. Or should I say porthole. Isaac stared out into the waves for the half second it took for his near-death experience to catch up with him and make him slump down on the bed in pain and exhaustion. Isaac's mind was already fogging up to go back to sleep when the door opened and a quartet of humans filed in. At least they looked close too human. With their scaled skin, they could have passed for the bastards of a dragon.

"I see our hostage is awake." said the tallest, a blue haired man who carried a natural aura of leadership around him like a big cloak.

"I don't care whether he wakes or not, we simply need the Stars. I personally would kill him, it's his town's stupid temple that killed our fellows." said a bizarrely green tinged man.

"Silence Agatio! That was our fault. That storm was not the fault of the town."

"Huh," thought Isaac dazedly as he faded out again "They did it. Wonder why?"

Isaac's half dead mind was beyond caring that they could have killed Jenna and probably did kill many others. He simply wanted to sleep………….

How was it? I'd love constructive criticism, things I did well, etc so please R&R if you would be so kind. Maybe I'll get the next part out sooner!

R.P.


	2. Chapter 1

Bleh P Final exams really suck, especially the imposed studying caused by sadistic parents

Bleh P Final exams really suck, especially the imposed studying caused by sadistic parents. I'm probably not the only one that can't wait for this year to be over with. Anyway, back to the story. I'll respond to the reviewers I get, since this site has no kind of author commenting system Minuit Chanson17: Thanks! Your's made my day and I saw you favorited it ) . Anyway, I'll keep plowing along here. Most of the adventure and the romance isn't in yet, but it'll come when it comes. That being said, GOD THIS CHAPTER WAS A PAIN. Anyway, enjoy!

_3 years later_

Jenna woke up looking out her window. It was a beautiful summer's morning and it should have done everything to help her mood. It didn't. Today just so happened to be the 3 ½ anniversary of _that _day. Jenna stood up and got dressed and got ready for the long day ahead. She wondered how she actually had the strength to do that. In the first year after Isaac's death, she was in a manic depression. Because Isaac had untied his scarf so as to save her, she believed everyone's death was her fault. Or so the Great Healer told her. She knew better in her heart of hearts. She found Isaac's beloved yellow scarf, covered in the blood and mud of that terrible night where most everyone she cared about had died. Even her parents left her. Felix was the only reason she hadn't gone crazy. He saved her, after catching her attempting to throw herself off a bridge, Felix was the one who talked her out of it. After that day, she came to her senses. She had a brother who had lost everything too. She was the only thing he had left and it wasn't fair to take even that away from him. So, here she was, a year afterwards, much better in the head now.

After walking down the stairs and heading for the kitchen, Kay was standing there over the hearth fire stoking it and cooking something. Why was Kay there? Jenna and Felix were staying with Garet's family who had offered to take them in. But that wasn't what mattered to Jenna. It was the fact that Kay was making breakfast.

"Good Morning!" she said in a cheery sing-song voice, while Jenna was letting out inward groans. Now, If you've never eaten one of Kay's breakfasts (or lunches and dinners for that matter), _DON'T if you fear for your life!_ She simply uses whatever happens to be lying around. Breakfast that morning? A small ham hock, thoroughly burned over an open flame, plopped on a plate and served still on fire!

"I think I'd prefer one of Garet's vermin burgers." She said absently. Kay evidently heard and suddenly stood in front of her, eyes blazing (and arms smoking under her sleeves).

"What did you say about my cooking?"

"Oh nothing, just thinking about the beautiful day, thats all, really. Heh-heh. Heh."

Kay didn't believe her, and the ham hock soon found itself on Jenna's lap, starting to singe her clothes. After throwing the ham outside and dumping a conveniently placed bucket of water into it, she headed upstairs to change her pants (Jenna has quite a lot of them, since, being a fire adept, she burns them a lot). As she was changing, there came a knock on the door.

"Just a sec"

After she changed, she opened the door and there stood Felix.

"G'morning. Wait, is that Kay's cooking I smell?"

"Yep"

Felix's face turned a rich shade of green.

"Sol! Its a wonder she can eat her own food. Let me guess, breakfast was on fire?"

"Its not any more. I dumped water on it."

"Oh thats where my bucket went too. Never mind. Garet, Kraden, and I were heading for Mount Aleph to visit Sol Sanctum. We were planning on sneaking in to appease Kraden, you know how he gets when he doesn't know something."

Grimacing, Jenna asked "How bad?"

"Sword point bad. He actually backed Garet into a wall with a random sword he picked up somewhere, demanding to go"

"Geez, when do we go? I'd rather not have a rabid Kraden running around maiming all kinds of people."

"Now. The guards'll probably still be asleep. I doubt they get an exciting day ever. Will you go get Kraden? Garet and I will be waiting in front of the Sanctum."

"Sure."

Felix, turned around and left quickly, obviously not wanting for Kraden to go insane. As soon as he was gone, Jenna, laughed so hard she almost set her bed sheets on fire. She would love to see Kraden vs. Garet. That wouldn't even be a fair. Kraden would just whip Garet's sword out of his hand and stab him with it. Of course, given how Garet was pretty much her brother, and she honestly didn't want Kraden maiming people, she ran down the stairs and out the door, heading for Kraden's.

After starting to run out of breath, Jenna slowed down and just walked to Kraden's. Passing the bridge were Kyle died, she started to pull on her red shirt. This was usually a sign she was thinking of a certain set of 4 that happened to be dead. Crossing the bridge caused her version of a mental instant replay, with Isaac's calm face as he untied the scarf and Kyle's horrible broken body flying up into the night flashing again in front of her minds eye like old, unwelcome friends. Trying to clear her mind, she began thinking about what Sol Sanctum would be like. Was there some great secret inside? Was that why the elders wouldn't let them in? What would this secret be, like some kind of power or something?

"Mercury Psynergy" she said aloud. There hadn't been a Mercury, or Jupiter for that matter, Adept in Vale for as far back as Jenna's grandparents could remember. Even Venus adepts were a rarity, Felix being the youngest one living. Of course, she knew what she was doing. Her mind was making a pathetic attempt to go back to Isaac again. If she could have the power that _maybe_ lies in there, she reasoned, maybe she could have stopped the storm that took Isaac's li—darn it. There it goes again. She really needed to stop with the whole haunted-by-her-past vibe. But she just couldn't stop thinking about it. This little internal battle continued on until she, unnoticing, almost bumped into a strange pair of tall people striding down the path.

"Look out you little twerp, can't you see there are people walking here?" said one of the pair, a tall women with pale skin.

"Excuse Me? You're calling me a twerp when you-"  
"ENOUGH!" The second member, a tall man with blue skin and a confident manner, interjected.

"I don't need arguments over the simplest of things Menardi. Let the girl go."

"Whoa whoa whoa, hold on a sec, y'see--" and thats when Jenna noticed the large, blood red sword he hadn't even bothered to sheath tied with a blue sash to his belt.

"See something new girl?" he chuckled as she gazed at the huge broadsword he carried like it was made from paper.

"I think I'll go now" Jenna smiled meekly

"I think you'd better." Menardi grinned wolfishly, moving a bit to let her pass. "See you later little twerp."

Jenna gritted her teeth and kept walking. No one wants to find out what broadswords feel like buried in her back. Besides, they had the flair of psynergy around them. They were adepts. She didn't want to think why they were there. Was it because of the Vale cave? The cave happened to be the official town creepy spot, and nobody went in ever. There were rumors about the place, for instance the power to stop time was supposed to be in the cave's depths. But why would they need that? Jenna kept thinking on these questions as she finally fetched Kraden, then headed up for Mt. Aleph. What she didn't know was that the pair were after something much different, something that would change the world forever, and not necessarily in a better way. Alchemy.

_3 hours later_

The flash of light engulfed the friend's bodies as they were lifted into the bizarre glowing portal in the stone. Jenna looked around in wonder at what looked like bright light as her body's little bits and bobs were disassembled painlessly and flown through countless tons of rock as they rocketed to one place: The true Sol Sanctum. Rematerializing in a flash of light, Jenna's feet touched the ground of a strange, bizarrely wet stone platform, in the midst of what looked like vasts amounts of water. Judging by what day it was, Jenna's memories chose that moment to come back in force. She saw and heard it all over again, her final moments with her parents and Isaac, the rainstorm, and finally the huge wave, and she started shivering, not with cold, but with her body-and-soul aversion to water, heightened by the horrible memories of drowning. And of course, Garet, ever the moment killer, chose that moment to materialize on top of her.

Eyes burning, Jenna sprang up and towered above Garet and she was just about to crush his skull when Kraden, who incidentally had gone before them, gave a gasp of amazement. Wheeling around, he saw what looked to be little chips of multicolored light off in the distance, one red, one blue, one purple, and one brown.

"The Stars! Finally, I have them!"

"What now Kraden?" asked Felix, now fully materialized as well, "Can't you see the stars every night?"

"No, you fool, the Elemental Stars. They are flawless gems that hold the essence of alchemy, the great and terrible power that is our worlds wellspring of energy and, incidentally, your psynergy. If one were to throw these into the beacons of the elemental lighthouses, one would gain great and terrible pow-

"KRADEN SHUT UP! We only needed the first part. But geez those are the Stars? I thought they would be bigger, and y'know, more, more star-shaped."

Kraden, completely ignored her and continued blathering on about elements as Garet, Jenna, and Felix stared out into the vast, crystal blue underground lake softly lit by the purple glow of psynergy stones. Felix was the first to notice the small stepping stones in the hazy half light. The stones appeared to branch out to the sources of the light. Pointing them out to Kraden, then was abruptly bowled over by the old man who jumped on to one of the step stones, teetered on the edge, then jumped back. Turning to the teens with pleading eyes, he asked "Will you go get the Stars for me? Jenna, you'll remember me grabbing something from the house. I grabbed those bags Garet said something about earlier. If you hadn't cut me off, you would have learned that this is the real reason why I'm here."

"Kraden you stinker! Felix and Garet, can you go get the Stars? I wanna give Kraden a piece of my mind!"

As Jenna started to unroll her sleeves, the boys started off across the stones for the Star glowing brown. Several minutes later, the boys had gotten up to the Jupiter Star, their third one, as Kraden finally got the sense to stop running from Jenna and head for the shining portal out of the room. But in that moment, all their lives changed for the worse. The blue haired man from earlier materialized in a burst of light over Kraden's head, but he didn't have the grace of Jenna and instead of softly dropping, he plopped on his back and fell, naked blood-red sword pointing straight at the fleeing Kraden. Jenna never even had time to let out a squeak before gravity did its deadly work and dropped the sword through Kraden's stomach. Time seemed to slow to a standstill as the red blade entered just underneath the collarbone and continued out through the tail bone reigion, coming out an even deeper shade of crimson. There was a pause of about a half a second, then blood started flowing out of the deep stab. Kraden stopped, his eyes bulged for a second, and with a shocked look crumpled to the ground, if not dead already, then soon. Jenna couldn't help but scream, quickly gaining the attention of Garet and Felix, but also that of the strange man who stood up, took his sword out of the sad, broken form of Kraden and pointed it at her.

"You again! I should have killed you on that path. Now you've given me more baggage than I need.", indicating Kraden with a sweep of his sword "You should not have come here, although I do thank you for so kindly defusing the trap that we pulled all those years ago."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, you stupid brat, that that trap is what caused the storm three years ago. I seem to recall that you remember it well?"

"You bastard! How do you know that?"

"Oh you'll find out in a few seconds. And here is Menardi, right on time." and the man's eyes flicked over to the golden portal where the pale skinned women materialized, then stepped contemptuously on Kraden on her way to where Jenna and the man were standing.

"Saturos, isn't she that stupid girl from the path? Although I will give her credit for getting this far with only this old beast for company." Evidently, Menardi hadn't noticed the fact that Felix and Garet were making their way over to the central platform, swords unsheathed and blazing with psynergetic light. But, they were stopped in their tracks when an odd blue haired man appeared in front of them.

"Menardi," he called in a superior tone, looking over to where the three Mars Adepts were standing, "You really should keep a better track on where your enemies are. For example, these two runts have been in here longer than Saturos has, and I believe they already have most of the Stars. Really now, your foolishness will get you killed someday" (A/N: for the first and only time in history, Alex is right about something!),

"Alex, just shut up and take the Stars"

"As you wish" Alex answered, rolling his eyes as he wheeled around to face the boys.

"So, I believe you know what we want, and I believe we have something of yours. If you want the girl unharmed, it is as simple as giving us the Stars."

Garet, being Garet, decided that the terms weren't good enough and charged forward, jumping at Alex with his huge broadsword, but missing as Alex simply warped out of reach.

Meanwhile, back at the platform, someone new was coming. A fourth accomplice materialized out of the golden gate, a tall, masked man with unruly, spiky blond hair in a mail hauberk with a huge broadsword sheathed over his back. Saturos gave a rather pointy, forced smile, and said "Ah our last companion. I trust that you recognize these brats from the village, after all, you must know them so well." The masked man appeared disoriented from the rematerialization, but he recovered and studied Jenna's face for second, then recoiled as if hit in the groin.

"Are there others?" the man asked, his deep voice echoing with, from what Jenna could hear, unexpected notes of kindness, but also with bitterness and sadness, in contrast to his companions who radiated cruelty.

"Why don't you look for yourself."

Turning and calling out into the lake, Saturos took negotiations for the Stars into his own hands "Give us the Stars now. If you don't, first your friend here, then your village will get it. And I'll make it slow trust me. I know a bigger number of ways to kill than the number of people in your village. You don't seem like the sort to have your friend here barbecued over open flames. You know what to do when your ready." Felix and Garet, talking quietly, finally agreed and Alex appeared from nowhere, presumably coming out of hiding like the little coward he is. Taking them, they started for the Mars star. But of course as soon as they removed it, the water in the room blew into superheated steam, threatening to hurt Felix (everyone else was fire adepts and Alex, being Alex had already warped out) until the steam abruptly disappeared. That was when they could see the lava pouring out of cracks in the floor, and things got complicated.

"Take the girl" said Saturos said

"Leave me here, I'd rather die than be apart of your stupid scheme." Jenna said, and with striking precision, elbowed Saturos in the throat, stunning him enough for her to grab the sword from his grasp and send it skittering to the edge of the platform. She ran for the portal but was tackled by the blond man.

Saturos, to his credit, recovered quickly and croaked out "Take off your mask, that'll make her go."

The stranger speech sounded pained and embarrassed as he replied "Is there another way? It doesn't seem right he-

"SILENCE! You will do as your told. Take off your mask Isaac!"

Jenna thought that was the first of the few moments over the following months when her heart just simply stopped. For years she had dreamed that her parents, or Isaac or his father were somehow still alive, but she knew that her hopes were in vane. But now... Was this man mocking her? But if so, how did he know Isaacs name... and if it was Isaac, did she want him back if he was allied with these murderers? The man pulled off his mask, and she saw a face. It was Isaac, but not _her _Isaac. This Isaac had years of bitterness, sadness, guilt and shame written in every line on his prematurely old face, but he was still the real Isaac from his young body and features. And striking now were his eyes. Once happy, warm and carefree, they had changed as well. Disturbed and stormy, like the glassy surface of an ocean disturbed by a hurricane, his eyes swirled with a maelstrom of guilt, bitterness, fear, and...was it something else she saw in those depths? But all this she saw in half a second. This time in this lake was proving too much for her, and she simply fainted, having had enough of this horrible chamber. Isaac evidently still had some distant part of his caring side still around, for he caught her as she fell. Saturos nodded to him, and he picked her up and carried her out the portal, with Menardi following. Saturos took a look back at Felix and Garet, huddling by the Mars statue, then walked out of the sanctum and left Felix, Garet and a dying Kraden to the death throws of Sol Sanctum.

Kraden was dieing and he knew it. After Jenna started chasing him to the portal, it suddenly felt like a huge, sharp, weight had fallen on him and crushed him to the ground, at the same time going through his body. Of course, he passed out from pain at this point, but when he came too, he was alone in the great chamber, now filling up with red stuff.

"Lava" he croaked out in a last defiance of death. But as he said this, there was a shimmer in the air above him and a boulder appeared, just kinda floating there. As he watched, the boulder opened a giant eye and stared down at him with silent wisdom and strength. Kraden was still looking into that eye, so fill of wisdom and benevolence, when the lava exploded upwards through the chamber, shining and glowing with a light so great that Kraden went blind in that last moment before his body seemed to dissolve into the air as the heat of the lava swirled around, cremating the last bits of the chamber that had held the Stars for so many years, and Kraden knew no more.

How was it? This one turned out kinda long with the way it flowed onto the page, but thats how things work. I intended for this to be split into 2 parts, the more contemplative first part, and the dark second part. As I said, I don't mind being sadistic to characters (sorry denizens of Temple of Kraden, I feel your pain), and I also love making sick lil' twists you didn't see coming. I personally never thought of what would happen if Kraden died when playing the games even though he was really old, and it kinda shocked me writing it. You saw the bitterness in Isaac, and that is what I'm going to fo-(injected with memory loss needle marked _in case of spoilers_). Ok, where was I. Oh yes, I myself didn't really like this chapter all that much, I don't know why, I just didn't for what ever reason. Any way, R&R please, I'll respond to any reviews in the A/N of next chapter.


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